FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of a system 10 connected to a network 20 via switches 30a, 30b. The system 10 includes a network interface card (NIC) 40 and an intelligent management device (IMD) 50. The NIC 40 is connected to the switch 30a and to a host (not shown) of the system 10. The IMD is connected to the switch 30b and to the host of the system 10. The NIC includes a NIC media access control (MAC) 60 and a NIC processor 70. The network 20 is connected to the switch 30a which, in turn, is connected to the NIC MAC 60. The NIC MAC 60 is connected to the NIC processor 70 which, in turn, is connected to the host of the system 10. The IMD 50 includes a MAC 80 and management processor 90. The network 20 is also connected to the switch 30b which, in turn, is connected to the MAC 80. The MAC 80 is connected to the management processor 90 which, in turn, is connected to the host of the system 10.
The IMD 50 provides, for example, monitoring, management capabilities and remote functionality. For example, the IMD 50 can provide monitoring and management capabilities for the system 10 and can provide remote functionality to or from a device (e.g., a remote device) connected to the network 20.
The IMD 50 can have one or more of the following disadvantages. For example, as illustrated in FIG. 1, the system 10 includes an additional dedicated connection to the network 20. Besides the additional cost (e.g., the additional switch 30b) of implementing another system port, the IMD 50 is susceptible to a failure, for example, of the switch 30b. Thus, if switch 30b were to fail, then the IMD 50 would no longer be accessible via the network 20. Furthermore, because the IMD 50 is connected to the network 20, the IMD 50 may be needlessly processing some packets carried on the network 20. On high-speed networks, in particular, the resources of the IMD 50 can be substantially consumed by such unnecessary processing, thereby reducing some resources of the IMD 50 that could have been allocated for other tasks. For example, some packets (e.g., packets that can be forwarded as received) may be processed by the IMD 50, even though these packets need not be processed by the IMD 50.
Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditional approaches will become apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art through comparison of such systems with one or more aspects of the present invention as set forth in the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings.